The LEMV is a robot blimp the size of a football field, designed to spy across an entire battlefield for weeks at a time. It's also looked like military vaporware—until now, soaring over the Jersey Shore. You won't believe how huge it is.

Sometimes it feels like I'm already living in the future. The U.S Army's Space and Missile Defense command plans to have an unmanned spy-ship capable of loitering at 20,000-feet (for up to three weeks) ready to deploy by mid-2011.